Deck 7: Monitoring and Controlling the Project

Question 1

Control is the collection, recording, and reporting of project information.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Everyone associated with the project should receive the same information.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The plan-monitor-control cycle constitutes a "closed loop" process.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The purpose of control is to ensure that all interested parties have the information they need.

Question 5

In general, it is preferable to have periodic reports.

Question 6

Raw numbers represent a simple tally of the occurrence of an event.

Question 7

In order to manage for overall project success, control must be exercised at the detailed work level for each aspect of project performance.

Question 8

One way of linking planning and control is to monitor project progress on the MSP Gantt chart.

Question 9

An overload of reporting is just as dangerous as underreporting.

Question 10

Too often, intensity of activity is measured instead of results.

Question 11

Project monitoring and control can be thought of as opposite sides of project selection and planning.

Question 12

Mechanisms to gather and store data rarely need to be designed.

Question 13

Frequent blame is considered a good motivational tool to keep project team members on track.

Question 14

The most important use of data gathered from monitoring is learning from mistakes.

Question 15

It is often the case with particularly challenging or uncertain projects that the planning-monitoring-controlling effort is minimized so that the "real work" can be done.

Question 16

A common mistake is to focus too much on results and not enough on the intensity of activity.

Question 17

In order to manage for overall project success, control should be exercised at a very high and aggregated level and not get bogged down with unnecessary details.

Question 18

Statistical quality control techniques can be helpful for determining what size variances are significant.

Question 19

The most important use of data gathered from monitoring is control.

Question 20

An important use of data analysis is to identify who to properly blame for poor project performance.

Question 21

Earned value is a measure for overall project progress in terms of performance, budget and schedule.

Question 22

Exception reports are primarily intended for unexpected situations.

Question 23

Monitoring is the direct connection between project planning and control.

Question 24

Lower expenditures than expected at a given point in time is always good.

Question 25

To maximize efficiency, project team meetings should follow Robert's Rules of Order.

Question 26

Project review meetings are always important.

Question 27

Which of the following is not an objective mentioned in the text for data gathered from monitoring?

A) promoting team members
B) keeping management informed
C) auditing
D) learning from mistakes
E) control

Question 28

Remarks should be directly attributed to individuals in the meeting minutes.

Question 29

The key to setting up a monitoring system is to identify the special characteristics of scope, cost and time that need to be controlled in order to achieve the project goals.

Question 30

Control systems that make use of all five components of project control are called cybernetic control systems.

Question 31

The percentage of an activity's budget actually spent by a given date is typically a good indicator of the percent of that activity's completion.

Question 32

The plan-monitor-control cycle is best described as…

A) an open loop process
B) a closed-loop process
C) an ad-hoc process
D) an informal process
E) a hierarchical process

Question 33

According to the text, there is no satisfactory way to measure accurately the percent of completion of most tasks.

Question 34

The 50-50 approach for estimating progress overstates the EV of tasks that are near completion and understates the EV of tasks that have recently begun.

Question 35

Which of the following is used when it is especially difficult to find a direct measure of a variable?

A) frequency count
B) raw numbers
C) surrogates
D) subjective numeric ratings
E) verbal characterizations

Question 36

Earned value (EV) of a task is the budgeted cost of the work actually performed.

Question 37

Exception reports are prepared to disseminate the results of a special study.

Question 38

The go/no-go control takes the form of tests (sensors) to determine if some specific precondition (standard and comparator) has been met before permission is granted to continue (decision maker and effector).

Question 39

Earned Value is a measure of overall project progress in terms of performance, budget, and schedule.

Question 40

Weekly progress report meetings should be rarely held.

Question 41

Explain why project monitoring and control can be thought to be opposite sides of project selection and planning.

Question 42

Which of the following is not true regarding meetings?

A) A written agenda should be distributed in advance of the meeting.
B) The agenda should announce pre-set starting and stopping times.
C) It is appropriate to be flexible and extend a meeting's stopping time if issues come up that were not on the agenda.
D) Don't penalize those who show up on time by making them wait for those who are late.
E) All of the above are true.

Question 43

Managing a project involves all of the following except;

A) Continually planning what to do
B) Checking on progress
C) Comparing progress to plan
D) Taking corrective action to build to bring progress into agreement with the plan if it is not
E) Holding regular meetings

Question 44

The first step in setting up a monitoring system is to:

A) identify personnel
B) identify all project milestones
C) identify key factors to be controlled
D) identify reports required
E) develop a change request form

Question 45

Which of the following is not a primary mechanism by which the PM exerts control?

A) reviews
B) personnel assignments
C) audit reports
D) resource allocation
E) all of the above are mechanisms by which the PM exerts control

Question 46

Which of the following was not listed in the text as a convention for estimating task progress?

A) 50% when task is started and another 50% when it is completed
B) 100 percent when task is completed and 0% before that
C) using the ratio of cost expended to total cost budgeted
D) using the ratio of time expended to the total time scheduled
E) all of the above were mentioned

Question 47

List and briefly describe the five data formats discussed in the text.

Question 48

Which of the following is not a component of a control system?

A) effector
B) sensor
C) decision maker
D) leveler
E) standard

Question 49

In earned value analysis…

A) it is desirable to have negative variances for both schedule and spending.
B) it is desirable to have positive variances for both schedule and spending.
C) the schedule variance should be positive and the spending variance negative.
D) the schedule variance should be negative and the spending variance positive.
E) ideally both variances would equal zero.

Question 50

List the benefits of reports beyond the purpose of control.

Question 51

Estimated (remaining cost) to completion (ETC) is calculated as…

A) (BAC - EV)/CPI
B) (BAC - EV)/SPI
C) (BAC + EV)/CPI
D) (BAC + EV)/SPI
E) (BAC - AC)/CPI

Question 52

List and briefly describe the three distinct types of reports.

Question 53

The following components are required for project control except;

A) Sensor
B) Comparator
C) Decision maker
D) Standard
E) Regulator

Question 54

Which of the following is most closely associated with ordinal rankings?

A) frequency counts
B) raw numbers
C) indicators
D) subjective numeric rankings
E) surrogates

Question 55

When a PM updates a project all of the following should be updated except:

A) Tables
B) Charts
C) Action plans
D) All of the above should be updated
E) None of the above should be updated

Question 56

Which of the following is not a tool used to aid the PM in project control?

A) variance analysis
B) trend projections
C) earned value analysis
D) control charts
E) discounted cash flow analysis

Question 57

Data Collecting will eventually exist in one of the following formats except:

A) Frequency counting
B) Raw numbers
C) Verbal characterization
D) Subjective numeric ratings
E) Probability scores

Question 58

Which of the following is not a distinct type of report?

A) exception
B) special analysis
C) critical incident
D) routine
E) all of the above are distinct types of reports

Question 59

The most common source of changes to a project based on the natural tendency of the client and project team members to improve the project's output is called…

A) scope creep
B) projectitis
C) multitasking
D) dynamic scoping
E) unfreezing

Question 60

The cost/spending variance is calculated as…

A) AC - EV
B) EV- PV
C) PV - EV
D) AC - PV
E) EV - AC

Question 61

All good project plans have a change control system as a component. Briefly explain the change control process.

Question 62

State the formula for CPI. Explain what CPI means and its relevance to monitoring and controlling a project.

Question 63

Why is control difficult?

Question 64

What is the best way to estimate percent completion of activities for finding earned value?

Question 65

Identify several tools a PM can use to control a project plan.

Question 66

Explain how an earned value chart can be used to help monitor and control a project.

Question 67

What actions can you take to help avoid the common problems associated with meetings?

Question 68

What are the two primary purposes of control?

Question 69

Define the terms monitoring and control.

Question 70

Explain why virtual projects may be necessary?

Question 71

What is earned value?

Question 72

State the formula for SPI. Explain what SPI means and its relevance to monitoring and controlling a project.